MGM

chool reading assignments have had very little impact on my reading habits. I spend a very moderate amount of time reading, an amount that has not changed during my long arduous journey through elementary, middle, and high school.
Fortunately, I am a fairly fast reader - because of this, no school reading assignments are so tedious that they leave me disenfranchised with reading in general. If I have to read a book for school that I don't like, I finish it in a night and never pick it up again. If I like it, I'll probably read it a couple more times because I'm too lazy to go to the library very often. Example: In 9th grade we had to read Nectar In a Sieve. It was probably my least favorite book EVER, so I finished it the first night I started reading and never touched it again (except to fill out ridiculous worksheets in english class). Another example: In 9th grade we also had to read Interpreter of Maladies. I probably read that 4 or 5 times, and I read the author's new book of short stories a couple of times this summer as well because they're awesome and extremely entertaining. Also very sad. Do not read "Unaccustomed Earth" if you're already in a bad mood, because then you will be in an even worse mood. Just a suggestion.
Anyway, my experiences with school assigned reading often blend in with my experiences reading books I have chosen personally. Because I read so fast, I don't have to be very selective in what I read. So I usually go to the library about once a week or once every two weeks and grab anything that looks like it could be moderately entertaining. I don't usually pick out extremely difficult reads because I'm kind of lazy with reading and I don't like to try very hard to understand things. So I read a lot of different types of books, of all genres and a lot of different "quality" levels. I used quotation marks because to me a quality book is a book that entertains me or engages me while I am reading it. The only books I don't like are really boring ones. And that's not to say that the plot is the only thing i value in a book - If characters are engaging or well-developed, or the writing is very good that is often as entertaining to me as a good plot. But I am really not very picky and I especially love books that are humorous without intending to be.
I'd say that school assignments pretty much have no effect on me, regardless of the subject. I usually do my homework unless it's really hard or annoying, but I'm usually not that interested in what is going on in my classes and my academic life is pretty much entirely separate from my real life. If that makes sense. School is really not very engaging, even though I like my teachers (for the most part) and my classes. They're moderately interesting for 55 minutes / day, but after that 55 minutes I don't usually pursue any additional knowledge in any area of study relating to any of my classes. I guess that relates to my outside - of -school reading habits in that what I read for school, or the books that I discuss in school don't do anything to impact my reading habits at home, in any capacity except that perhaps school exposes me to books I would not have selected for myself otherwise (not necessarily a bad thing.)
In conclusion: I go to school, I read, and I also do homework. The aforementioned activities are extremely tiny parts of my life so it's weird to analyze my habits in these areas. (And yes, I know that school is, in terms of time spent here, a kind of not-tiny part of my life but I don't feel it really impacts who I am that much at all. Is what I mean. )